


Falling

by blackestfaery



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Wordcount: 100
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-01-20 04:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1495849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackestfaery/pseuds/blackestfaery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of unrelated drabbles featuring Daryl Dixon & Beth Greene. Rating may change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Again

**Author's Note:**

> Set in season 4, episode 13: Alone.

Daryl knows nothing of reading music notes or where to place his hands on a piano and how hard to press. He’s much more accustomed to the curve of his crossbow’s trigger and the ever-fraying rope of their homemade tin can security system. Practical things, he thinks.

And yet.

Daryl also knows what music can do for an exhausted group of survivors trying to make a home out of a prison. The respite is fleeting, but as Beth lets her last note fade, he turns his face towards her.

“One more time?” he asks and breathes again when she agrees.


	2. Forget

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 15: Us.

Daryl hadn’t been lying when he had said he would need reminding.

As he stands there with the stained remnants of a blanket in his hands, he thinks back to a day where he covered a zombie because _it does matter_. The memory rocks him a little, enough to get him moving to lay the sheet over the dead man below, but he pauses because why bother when he’s alone again and there are no rules and the good ones don’t survive?

He tosses the blanket away, puts one foot in front of the other, and wills himself to forget.


	3. Impressed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 12: Still.

Greene has a damn unfortunate ability to see right through him. For someone who’d spent so little time with him aside from the quick shuffle of hands to pass Judith off between them, they had barely spoken. So to have her stare at him now with those huge eyes and—

"…because you're _afraid_." 

—call him out? That shit ain't right.

"I ain't afraid of nothin'," he spits and stares right back to keep her from noticing the shaking in his hands.

She doesn’t back down, though, and a part of him that’s growing ever bigger can’t help but be impressed.


	4. Familiar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 12: Still.

She won’t even help breakdown their _suck ass camp_.

Fine. It’s true but it still fucking stung. It ain’t as fancy as their prison-home but it’s _something_. Better than anything she could’ve done, and you know what? Greene should be thankful he’s even bothering to save her ungrateful ass, because who was even left to reunite with?

The feeling of being cut loose wells up again and Daryl makes quick work of packing their few possessions. He catches up to Beth and falls in close behind her, crossbow at the ready.

If nothing else, at least this part is familiar.


	5. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 13: Alone.

There are candles and chairs arranged in neat little rows, fading light peeking through boarded up windows. He senses a stillness that he almost doesn't recognize but no surprise there. It's been so long since he felt at peace, this settling in his bones that had only come once before, so slowly, over the weeks and months at the prison. 

The shadows along the edge of his vision shift, and he watches as Beth pulls the fall board over the keys.

“Quiet time,” she explains. “Don’t want the walkers comin’ too close.”

_Yeah_ , Daryl thinks suddenly. 

_Too close to home._


	6. Gentle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 1: 30 Days Without An Accident.

He doesn't know why he feels the need to be the one to tell Beth the bad news, but the words are out of his mouth and Glenn looks relieved.

"Thanks, man," he says. "Just be gentle about it."

Gentle. Right. He senses he’s in way over his head and knows he is when Beth looks up at him with those huge eyes, asking if Zach’s dead. Daryl shoves his hands into his pockets, searches for the words, and nods instead when he comes up mum. His stomach drops along with her eyes.

Damn. He’s never volunteering for this again.


	7. Okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 8: Too Far Gone.

The first day, when the fences fall and their home is reclaimed by the dead, is long.

Beth becomes Daryl’s shadow, she follows him so closely. She runs on autopilot, their pace set to the litany of _no no no_ ’s careening through her mind. She wants so badly to stop and lay down forever, but just as her knees begin to give out, Daryl looks back at her. She can see he’s breaking down too, and the thought of him losing one more person locks her knees.

Her whole body aches but she nods at him.

“I’m okay. Keep going.”


	8. Followed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 10: Inmates.

Beth grips her knife and almost regrets leaving camp in the middle of the night. Their fire had been small but it had made the tree line look less sinister, less likely to give way to things that go bump in the night.

She thinks that Daryl might still be where she left him, eyes blank and hands hanging motionless over his knees. The image almost makes her turn back, but a sound jerks her attention to the right.

Daryl melts out of the shadows, crossbow in hand. He only nods, but that doesn’t deter Beth from beaming his way.


	9. Secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in season 4, episode 1: 30 Days Without An Accident

Daryl's quiet footsteps beat a faster than normal tattoo as he leaves, but Beth hardly hears them over her equally faster than normal heartbeat. She sinks onto the edge of her bunk, one hand pressed to a still burning cheek.

“That… actually happened,” she says aloud. As if the lingering scent of smoke and leather in her nose didn’t confirm that, yes, she had hugged (The) Daryl Dixon.

She's briefly tempted to tell Maggie, but the memory of his quiet words and the careful way he cradled her arm keeps her sitting.

No. Their moment will be her secret alone.


End file.
